Kano State government has marked for demolition property, including multimillion Naira plazas and filling stations located along popular BUK road, for demolition.
The property are those built around the ancient Kano city wall (Badala) which the incumbent governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, accused his predecessor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, of illegally allocating for development.
While a few of the structures marked for demolition the Kano State Urban Planning and Development Authority (KNUPDA) are under construction, majority of them have been completed.
Daily Trust gathered that one of the completed plazas belongs to the state government under Kano State Investment and Properties Limited (KISP) while others belong to individuals and business owners in the state.
Among the structures that exist on Badala are filling stations, car dealers spots and one of the biggest filling stations in the state (SALBAS OIL).
After marking the structures, owners and occupants started removing their belongings, including roofing sheets and doors.
This place was sold to us by one of the top people in this government. He was with the past government before they parted ways and here he is, chasing us out of our businesses. We don’t know the kind of government this is.”
“We are selling cars and we employed over 20 people directly while others indirectly earn a living here. But the business has to collapse now,” Alhaji Jamilu Lawan, owner of one of the structures, said.
Similarly, residents in the state are also expressing views with regards to the decision, with some of them saying the demolition exercise is taking the state backward, while others support the idea.
“This is taking us back. The past government brought this policy to take the state forward especially in revenue generation. Look at Lagos, they depend on these kinds of initiatives to be independent. Among the structures, the biggest belongs to the state and was built with public funds, but they are demolishing it,” one of the supporters of the past government, Auwal Tahir, said.
Another resident, Abubakar Mai Wada, said the wall served as one of the historic places and that they were given out free of charge to the people close to the past government, adding that the demolishing is towards restoring the established structure of the state.
Daily Trust reports that the Managing Director of the KNUPDA, Arc. Ibrahim Yakubu Adamu, has vowed to restore all public lands that were “illegally” sold out by the past administration.
He said all public lands including grave yards, mosques, schools and the wall fence will be demolished and put back to proper use.
